Re-usable endoscopes are commonly employed in the medical and veterinary arts. Such endoscopes, and especially the lumens thereof, are cleaned and then decontaminated after each use thus preparing the endoscope for the next use. The lumens of an endoscope can be challenging to clean.
Effective inactivation of biocontamination located on an inner wall of an endoscope lumen is accomplished only after the lumen wall is cleaned of any soil located thereon. In one approach to removing soil from the inner wall of a lumen, the inner wall of the lumen is scrubbed with a brush to remove soil adhered thereto. This approach is labor intensive and thus costly. It is therefore desirable to automate the cleaning of the lumen wall of a medical instrument such as the lumen wall of an endoscope.
Given the importance of cleaning the inner surface of a lumen wall of an endoscope prior to decontaminating the same, there is a need for an effective, inexpensive and direct method of cleaning the inner wall of an endoscope lumen.